State Briefs 12/24/08

SHERMAN – Sherman police are investigating a possible freight train-pedestrian accident that left a 24-year-old man with an arm injury.

Police Chief Eric Smith said the incident occurred about 3:15 p.m. Tuesday. The crew of the train reported possibly hitting a pedestrian walking along the tracks.

Smith said the man was found lying on the ground, but he told authorities he wasn’t hit by the train. There was no other immediate explanation, however, for his injuries. The man, a Sherman resident whose identity was not released, was taken to the hospital.

State Journal-Register

Unoccupied car pulled out of Lake Springfield

SPRINGFIELD – Crews pulled an unoccupied car out of an icy Lake Springfield Wednesdy morning after it slid off a marina parking lot and into the water. No one was injured.

City Water, Light and Power lake police, lake security, the Springfield Underwater Search and Rescue Team and Tuxhorn Towing were called to the Lake Springfield Marina after getting a report of a car floating in the lake.

The car is believed to have gone into the lake about 1 a.m. after the person driving it lost control on the icy, inclined marina parking lot. The person got out of the car before the vehicle went into the water.

A dive team member arriving on the scene about 6 a.m. went in to confirm there was no one in the car, said Jim Kopec, commander of the search and rescue team. Then the crew started fishing the vehicle out.

State Journal-Register

No injuries after school bus slides off road

SPRINGFIELD – A school bus loaded with about 20 students ran off the road in Springfield Tuesday afternoon.

Karen Stevenson, the mother of one of the Franklin Middle School sixth-graders on the bus, said her daughter called her after the crash. Stevenson drove to the scene to pick up the girl.

“It’s kind of scary because the bus is between two utility poles,” Stevenson said.

At the time of crash, Springfield firefighters already were in the area investigating the cause of an earlier fire. They helped the children off the bus and called police.

Fire officials said the road was very slick at the time of the crash.

State Journal-Register

Eighty families still not back in homes after June flooding

MACHESNEY PARK – Eighty families are still not back in their homes after widespread flooding in June.

In August, the Federal Emergency Management Agency approved more than $1.3 million in disaster aid for 545 applicants in Winnebago County. Illinois has been approved for more than $13.6 million in federal disaster assistance grants and loans, and 3,095 homeowners and renters have applied for disaster assistance.

Village President Linda Vaughn said 80 families still haven’t moved back in their homes. During the height of evacuation, nearly 140 families were homeless. The neighborhoods are dark along Shore Drive near the Rock River, Vaughn said, usually several houses have Christmas lights outside and trees visible in the homes. This year the area is lifeless because so many families are living somewhere else during their rebuilding time, she said.